Cultural and poetry award winners

THE 2013 National Cultural Awards and the inaugural Jean Cecily Drake-Brockman Prize for Poetry were presented at Manning Clark House on Sunday.

Winners of the individual and group cultural awards were presented with sculptures specially created by Braidwood sculptor Victoria Royds, while each of the two poetry winners won $500, a reading at the House and two residencies.

The individual award went to Ross McMullin for “Farewell, Dear People”, 10 extended biographies of young men from Australia’s gifted “lost generation” of World War I, a Scribe publication.

Special mentions went to Pattie Wright for “Ray Parkin’s Odyssey” and Nicholas Brown and Susan Boden for “A Way Through: The Life of Rick Farley”.

The group award went to Big hArt theatre company for “Ngapartji Ngapartji”.

Special mentions went to Lajamanu Community and Tracks Dance Company for the Milpirri Festival and Bangarra Dance theatre for “Terrain”.

Judith Crispin, the director of Manning Clark House said she was “extremely happy to see so many nominations of Aboriginal authors and groups.”

The joint prizewinners in the Jean-Cecily Drake Brockman prize for poetry were Gerard Butera of Coburg, Victoria, for his poem “We had other plans” and Todd Turner of Parramatta for “Fieldwork”.